IT outsourcing company iGate Corporation has appointed Ashok Vemuri, former Infosys' board member who was also head of Americas besides chief of the manufacturing and engineering vertical, as president and chief executive officer with effect from September 16, 2013. Vemuri will also join iGate’s board.
The appointment comes four months after the company sacked its previous chief Phaneesh Murthy over failure to disclose his relationship with a subordinate.
Gerhard Watzinger, who has been serving as the company's interim president and CEO since May 2013, will remain with iGate in an advisory role temporarily to assist Vemuri in the transition period.
Vemuri quit Infosys two weeks ago in a significant move as he was one of the top contenders to take over as chief executive after SD Shibulal's term ends in 2015. He could have been the first chief of the company who was not also a co-founder of Infosys.
In his role as head of Americas, he was responsible for Infosys’ business operations in the company's largest region—with $4.7 billion in revenues—and he oversaw all facets of the business, from strategic direction to maintaining and improving financial and operational efficiency.
He previously worked in the investment banking industry with Bank of America and Deutsche Bank.
Vemuri is a Physics graduate from St Stephens College, Delhi who went on to secure an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad.
"Ashok brings a tremendous track record of success and accomplishments working across a range of businesses at Infosys, where he was directly responsible for driving growth for numerous multi-billion dollar businesses," Sunil Wadhwani, co-founder and co-chairman of the board of iGate, said.
"iGate has a strong business model and Ashok is the right person to lead iGate into the next phase of growth and opportunity," said Ashok Trivedi, co-founder and co-chairman of the board of iGate.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)